Electronic optical sensors are widely used for generating electronic images. Often, such sensors (e.g., “cameras”) are located in places remote to a viewer. The remote locations include places (e.g., external to vehicles) where contaminants (e.g. moisture and/or dirt) from the environment can cloud or otherwise obscure the camera lens, such that degraded images are generated by a camera having an obscured lens. The degradation of the image quality can decrease safety or security in many applications. Various techniques for automatically cleaning the camera lenses include water sprayers, mechanical wipers, or air jet solutions. Such approaches are not practical or too costly in a variety of applications.